This is part two of an on-going series of posts looking at the newest members of the Minnesota Twins. As I said in the last post, I am first looking at the free agent acquisitions. Today we'll look at the 2nd of the 4 free agent pickups. Enjoy.
Adam Everett
Like the free agent we looked at last time, Mike Lamb, Adam Everett is also a veteran of 8 seasons. Also like Lamb, Everett came to the Twins from the Houston Astros. Everett spent all 8 seasons of his career prior to coming to Minnesota with the Astros. First and foremost, he is a superb defensive player. He has excellent range (a 4.30 career RFg, versus the league average of 4.00) at SS and a decent arm, allowing him to take away hits on a regular basis. However, he is an abysmal .246/.297/.356 career hitter. His career OPS+ is 69, meaning that offensively, he is about as bad as you can get and still have a job in the Majors.
Reason for signing: Provide defensive stability up the middle. With a high likelihood of having a young starter at 2B (e.g. Brendan Harris, Alexi Casilla), the Twins hoped that Everett would be a steady, defensive presence, unlike the departed Jason Bartlett (this is the Twins' view of Bartlett's defense, not mine).
So far this year: Everett has played in just 25 games for the Twins so far this season. He has spent two different stints on the 15-day disabled list with right shoulder issues. In his 25 games played (74 ABs) he has hit to the tune of .189 batting average and a 54 OPS+. These stats, of course, are from a fairly small sample size, but he has really struggled at the plate when he's been up there. On the defensive side, where the Twins felt he would provide the most value, he has also struggled, committing 4 errors already this season (he committed just 8 errors all of last season). His defensive range remains solidly above average, but his throws have been an issue, perhaps due to the continuing shoulder issues.
Outlook for the rest of the season: I don't expect much from Everett the rest of the season. He is not expected to return to the lineup until after the All-Star break, since his shoulder is still causing him some issues. Based on his offensive track record, I don't think that we can expect Everett to have a huge, or even a marginal, offensive impact in the second half of the season. Admittedly, defense hasn't been the Twins strongest point so far this season, particularly in the middle of the infield. When Everett plays, assuming he's healthy, I think his defensive will be fine. Perhaps the best we can hope for is for Everett to share some of his defensive knowledge with Brendan Harris, who should expect to see a lot of time at SS, with Nick Punto back on the disabled list.
Synopsis: In short, I don't agree with the Twins on this one. The Twins made a mistake in trading Jason Bartlett. He was a decent bat who played better defense than the organization believed. Bartlett is only a career .266/.333/.348 hitter in the Majors, but his Minor League track record showed much more offensive potential. Bartlett was a .297/.363/.415 hitter in 6 Minor League seasons. And Bartlett's defensive ability was far better than the Twins believed. He had a tendency to make a bad throw on occasion, but his offensive ability made up for his throwing errors (at least in my eyes). Adam Everett has a career OBP that is 30 points lower than Bartlett and an OPS+ that is 13 below Bartlett. The value that Everett provides defensively does not make up for his offensive inability. Given the other options to start at SS, both in-house and on the free agent market, the Twins felt that Everett was the best option. Looking at the free agent market for SS last season, you can see why. The only other viable option would have been David Eckstein, who would have commanded about double the $2.8 million contract given to Everett. In light of the trade of Jason Bartlett, the Twins were left with few options, so from that standpoint, the signing of Everett to a one-year deal, for relatively little money, as a temporary band-aid until one of the younger, in-house options is ready, it is an OK move. But I still believe that the Twins gave up on Bartlett when they shouldn't have.
1 comment:
Bartlett was also way hotter.
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